Editorial: Let ethics chips fall on Rob Andrews

If U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews thought he could get away without more scrutiny of tens of thousands in campaign cash that seems to have been spent on personal stuff, he’d better reconsider.

The House Ethics Committee said this week that it is weighing a case against Andrews, D-1st Dist., the 11-term Haddon Heights congressman who has already faced scrutiny from the Federal Election Commission.

In November, the Times and its sister papers detailed how Andrews used his campaign account to pay for a family trip to Scotland, a graduation party for his daughter, donations to Philadelphia theaters where another daughter performed, and visits to California that coincided with the daughter’s career. Andrews says the spending is legitimate.

However, shortly after the report last fall, he reimbursed $13,000 to the campaign account and later reimbursed more than $16,000 for the Scotland trip.

Camden County Republican Chairman Tom Booth may have filed the complaint against Andrews, but this is no mere witch hunt by political opponents. News of the possible probe was released by both the committee’s Republican chairman and its ranking Democrat.

The congressman’s responses about partisan accusations and “... attacks on (his) children” and family members are shameful. They didn’t make questionable expenditures. He did.

Already, Andrews’ campaign fund has paid $100,000 to a law firm known for representing members of Congress who face ethics charges.

Unfortunately, the House Ethics Committee is secretive and too protective of its own, but it will say by Aug. 31 whether or not it will investigate Andrews. It should. His conveniently timed spending raises many questions.

Andrews showed how his political hubris knows no bounds when he engineered a switch for his wife to hold his re-election ballot place until after he lost an ill-fated 2008 primary run against U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.

Whatever the ethics panel decides may be enough to satisfy the Democrats’ South Jersey machine, but it won’t be sufficient reason for voters to trust Andrews. Only boundless hubris would say otherwise.